House vote to send health law repeal to Obama for first time
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, voices her objections as the GOP-led panel prepares legislation that would repeal President Barack Oabma’s signature health care law, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON » After dozens of failed attempts to undo President Barack Obama’s health care law, the GOP-led Congress will finally put a bill on the president’s desk today striking at the heart of his signature legislative achievement.
Obama will veto the bill, and so the ultimate outcome will be the same as the many previous GOP attempts to repeal “Obamacare.” But the vote in the House, in its first legislative act of this presidential election year, will mark the first time such a bill makes it all the way to the White House.
Unlike past efforts that were blocked by Senate Democrats, this time the legislation was written under special rules protecting it from a Democratic filibuster. It passed the Senate late last year, and so today’s House vote will send it straight to Obama.
House GOP leaders said the vote and Obama’s subsequent veto will lay bare a stark choice between the parties in a presidential election year. The legislation also cuts federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has decried the legislation while leading GOP candidates applaud it.
“We are confronting the president with the hard, honest truth. Obamacare doesn’t work,” Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told reporters today. But he acknowledged: “Ultimately, this is going to require a Republican president. That’s why our top priority in 2016 is going to be offering the country a clear choice with a bold pro-growth agenda.”
However Ryan hedged when asked whether the House will ever vote on a replacement to Obamacare. Ryan has pledged that the House will come up with its own plan this year — something the GOP has repeatedly promised but failed to do in the nearly six years since the law’s enactment. He said details such as whether it will actually come to a vote have not been determined.
“Nothing’s been decided yet,” Ryan said.
Democrats and administration allies denounced the vote as a waste of time aimed at placating GOP base voters riled up by Donald Trump and the unruly Republican presidential race.
“Since both House and Senate Republicans know President Obama will veto the bill, this is nothing more than government by temper tantrum,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a health advocacy group. “If it were real legislation, this unprecedented action would constitute the largest take-back of health care coverage in our nation’s history.”
The bill being voted on today would dismantle the health law’s key pillars, including requirements that most people obtain coverage and larger employers offer it to workers.
It would eliminate the expansion of Medicaid coverage to additional lower-income people and the government’s subsidies for many who buy policies on newly created insurance marketplaces. And it would end taxes the law imposed to cover its costs.
The bill would also terminate the roughly $450 million yearly in federal dollars that go to Planned Parenthood, about a third of its budget. A perennial target of conservatives, the group came under intensified GOP pressure last year over providing fetal tissue for research.
“It is appalling that in their first week back in session the top priority for Republican leaders in the House is rolling back women’s access to preventive health care,” said Dawn Laguens, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
GOP leaders hope to schedule a veto override vote to coincide with the Jan. 22 March for Life in Washington, the annual gathering of anti-abortion activists on the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. However Republicans do not command enough votes to override the president’s veto.
60 responses to “House vote to send health law repeal to Obama for first time”
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Republicans are most happy when the are leaving Main Street without any health care insurance.
I grew up in dire poverty and never had any insurance. Republicans love to dump on the poor and middle class in their hurry to serve the interests of the rich. Many Americans are getting health insurance for the first time under the Affordable Care Act.
Who’s paying the higher costly ObamaCare insurance premiums and possibly the loss of their ole care providers today, The Rich? Get a grip, it’s the middle class who’s dissappearing in the US. Don’t blame others on not having Health Care Ins. in which someone couldn’t provide you. That’s Entitlement!
Everyone should be entitled to medical care and education. This isn’t a third-world country. A healthy, educated population is an economic advantage to the U.S.
It doesn’t bother you that we passed a law that was nothing but billions and billions and billions of dollar give drug company give away but we struggle politically with providing even basic levels of healthcare to everyone?
I hope you get your degree and when having your own family you’ll be able to afford to pay for you and yours premiums yourself. That’s the American dream or is it like today having someone to support you to live?
Really sorry to hear that your parents failed. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act I no longer have a doctor. How did this happen? Many long time doctors simply retired very early because their insurance reimbursements failed under this act. I say bring back the old days. Hawaii had a great system until the feds stepped in and broke it.
Really sorry to hear you failed. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, if my daughter were to survive cancer or any other potentially fatal disease, she wouldn’t be denied coverage as a survivor. And I live in Hawaii. I still have my doctor. I still have a great system of medical care.
The I lost my doctor meme from republicans has been debunked many times.
Rite80, wasn’t there a lady constantly cited as “losing” her insurance and paying more when in actuality she was paying less for more coverage under the ACA?
There’s something wrong with a system when a person who takes care of their health, with no health issues, who hasn’t seen a doctor in 20 years, has his monthly insurance premium skyrocket from $80 to $500. Obamacare is the typical socialist ideal of spending other people’s money.
Didn’t you get the memo? If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. It must be true because I say his lips move when I heard it.
People don’t need health insurance if they have access to health care. Instead of paying for premiums, the money could have opened up hospitals and clinics that do not charge for eligible people.
Great photo of a Republican lady with her mouth wide open. Saying nothing but having a big mouth.
That “lady” is a Democrat.
No real lady would befoul herself by becoming a Democrat.
I have a major problem with the term “Affordable”… PERSONAL NOTE: “allie”–brave of you to make your disclosure. Kudo’s! F.Y.I.: I, on the other hand, was raised in high-profiled Country Clubs, etc., and, being the youngest of 4, with 3 much older brothers–I had it all. And then, my Father died when I was 11 and my Mother died when I was going on 16 years old. My brothers came to me, the day after my High School graduation, and said “take your Brooks Brothers wardrobe, your convertible, and all your toys and move out of the house–we’re selling everything”. I got nothing thereafter. Got in to college; paid my own tuition (bagged groceries), studied hard, got grants and scholarships, and gleaned multiple degrees–because college was the safest place to be during the Vietnam War (although I did serve in Vietnam for 10 months and Reserves thereafter). Ethnically, I’m “5-cent” American Indian (Chippewa), “15-cent” Hawaiian, and predominantly Italian. I’ve experienced major “Up’s” and “Down’s”–multiple times in my Career. Along the way, I was very fortunate to have many “Angels”, both physically and spiritually; who intervened in my life’s passages–just in “the nick-of-time”. I believe EVERYONE can achieve and EVERYONE has a responsibility to this Planet and to one another. And, to that end–I defend “THE HOMELESS” and those who have been cheated by the maligned socio-political policies of malfeasant Government(s). To YOU–“allie”–I say IMUA! You can and will “MAKE-IT”! “Just do it”! ALOHA!
Do you get extra credit in your graduate courses for the all Republicans are evil comments? I’m sure I could come up with something equally inane and intellectually stunted about Indians in general and Mandans in particular.
Why take up the cudgel against the rich? They pay a far greater share of taxes than is even remotely fair and they provide jobs for those willing to work. If the rich are driven from our shores because of our idiotic tax code, you can bet your bottom dollar YOUR taxes will have to go up to pay our grand nanny state.
The GOTP has regressed from being the Party of Obstruction to being the Party of Destruction.
Nope. That party resides in the White House, the very first prez we ever had who actually HATES the people who voted him into office.
Though it’s a symbolic vote… those who oppose “Obama-Care” (me included) will favor a Republican president in 2017.
You do realize they are all symbolic votes?
The GOP has ZERO plans to replace the ACA. The votes are meant to rile up the base. The idea that the GOP will alienate 16+ million voters by removing their insurance is insane.
The GOP do not actually want to remove the ACA.
ACA does not need to be “replaced”. It needs to be destroyed so that patients can call the shots on what kind of medical service they need and not some 24 year old bureaucrat who knows who to read a multi thousand page government instruction manual in deciding who shall live and who is “not worth it” – – the exact sort of death panels predicted by Sarah Palin.
Okay, tell me how the average person knows what medical service they need and how they will know in the present what they will need in the future so they can get the right medical plan.
You seem wildly ignorant to the fact that the old system was actually worse.
And death panels exist in healthcare. They will stop existing when healthcare becomes an infinite resource that can be endlessly spent without a problem of funding. Death panels have existed in private insurance for decades and you never cared a bit before.
There is a reason why private insurance for DECADES delayed payment and treatment. They wanted patients to die so they didn’t have to pay out. You are ignorant if you think this is a new thing.
Obamadon’tcare is an abomination that its full effect has not yet been felt with the increase in fines and the loss of subsidies. Most of the sign ups, which are disgracefully low are Medicaid plans. Obama and the corrupt Democrat Party wants you to not look at how you the people who worker every day to pay for your healthcare will be the ones who pay for the increase in non-paying sign ups. Thank you GOP and hopefully after the nightmare of Obama is over, we will be rid of this abomination.
So the old system where the uninsured freeloaded off our ratepayer dollars with zero penalty was better?
Why are medicaid plans disgraceful? How are they more disgraceful than the low cost plans which provided little more than bandaids?
Tell me, why it is better to advocate for people to take the completely irresponsible method of no sign ups, no penalties and mass freeloading over a system that incentivizes people to get their own insurance?
Why do you hate personal responsibility so much? Is it because Obama adopted it and your ideological core is based on hating everything he does?
Maipono – Didn’t see you or anyone else offer a viable alternative to Obamacare. Fact is there isn’t a single bureaucrat out there with a ready to go alternative for it. They just bloviate about problems, fail to offer any alternatives.
It’s what our elected bureaucrats do. Nothing but take our money.
The ACA is far from perfect, but at least it has a method to push people towards signing up and beginning to take responsibility for their own insurance. I’ve always said the penalty was too low.
Better to get the freeloaders into the system and have them start paying something than keep them outside of data collection where they freely rob all ratepayers of their own insurance pool money. Lots of people don’t understand just how rampant the theft was under the old system. Even in Hawaii, hospitals will keep state workers longer than necessary because that extra billing helped cover the uninsured. The freeloaders were effectively driving up state healthcare costs which taxpayers then have to cover, with zero penalties. And yet, for some asinine reason Maipono is okay with that.
Yo! Choyd!
NEWSFLASH – – The gummint isn’t in the business of “pushing” the people to do anything. Gumint is the SERVANT, not the master.
Government is in the business of pushing people to do all sorts of things. Like honest disclosures, signing up for various insurance and retirement, getting a job, getting an education.
Or do you think that we should all be bums living in our parents’ basements like you Thos?
It’s about time. Obamacare is the worst thing to happen to Hawaii’s small business owners.
TO: Jiujitsu_Fighter Exactly how is that the worst thing to happen to Hawaii’s small business owners? I am a small business owner and our company rates DECREASED when “Obamacare” went into effect. Everyone has a doctor and the rates have stayed lower than before. Please explain yourself.
The worst thing to happen to small business owners in Hawaii is (drum roll) greedy landlords dumping small businesses to make way for luxury goods retailers who only want the tourist trade, and are willing to pay outrageous rents for the privilege.
Yes- buddy speaks the truth.
If you have HMSA as your healthcare provider you would understand.
My understanding is that the marketplace has allowed small businesses to buy insurance for their employees at lower costs, or even provide it in the first place and not have to manipulate hours to deny insurance. Prior, buying insurance for small businesses was a huge mess.
I think what jujitsu-fighter objects to is that he can no longer get away with paying wages so low his employees can’t afford health care, AND not paying for any health care insurance for them either. He resents having to provide fair compensation to the people in his employ.
Personally a 50% increase to my premiums, an acquaintance hit with a 60% in MN and the Seniors now having a facility surcharge added to premium under the disguise of cost increases, etc. to fund healthcare for those who did not/do not contribute their share? On top of that for those who opt not to sign up…adding to the shortfall. Watch out as the IRS compares their data base and ferret out those who claim to have signed up for healthcare and actually did not…this is a question on your tax form when filing for taxes. Then the penalties will kick and be applied to your tax liability. Since we are in the tax filing seasib you should not claim you have healthcare coverage when you do not have…just saying…it’s a slippery slope.
OOH, how awful of the government – catching cheaters that are costing us all money.
What ever happens it’s okay with me. Have had my time in the sunshine so just awaiting the moonlights. From a tired old man.
God bless you cojef. But don’t give up the fight your generation is the generation that made us made us American’s.
Unless cojef is well over 200 years old, his generation did not make us Americans.
Brilliant
Everyone should be okay with this. As long as whatever the GOP replaces it, is MANDATORY for all Congress members to partake in with no premium plans available to them.
As long as Congress, by law, must take the median cost option in their scheme, I’m okay with this repeal.
Aren’t these special rules on filibuster actually the ones the Democrats unilaterally adopted a few years ago?
Once again our utterly incompetent, bloviating, Washington bureaucrats have nothing better to do than trying to end Obamacare in exchange for nothing. What is with all these losers.
Last year as is their standard, they willfully failed to finish the country’s budget on time, to standard. And as usual, they filled the budget with pork, wasteful spending as they kowtowed to their special interest bosses.
No wonder the country is so deep in debt, bureaucrats doing less work every year, spinning their incompetence as a “Win-Win” for everyone. Really?
One comment, bureaucrats refer to civil service.
Where elected officials are those trying to repeal the ACA with no replacement.
Generally, bureaucrats don’t bloviate. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and Barrack Obama bloviate.
Seems like the GOP are shooting themselves in the foot with this one. Seems to me that this is a wake-up call to not only vote for a Democratic President, but also to vote for Democratic Senators and Congresspeople.
No one likes the old insurance company ways (except, it seems, the right-wing Republicans commenting here…where did you guys come from?).
Unfortunately it’s ObamaDon’tcare that guarantees the insurance companies makes a profit. You didn’t know? You were just Grubered.
And what exactly is so wrong with insurance firms making a profit? Do you think we should go to single payer instead?
So you have read the legislation?
Obamacare 101 in four easy-to-understand sentences: 1. In order to insure the un-insured, the insured first had to be un-insured. 2. Next, the newly un-insured were required to be re-insured. 3. To re-insure the newly un-insured, they were required to pay extra charges to be re-insured. 4. The extra charges were required so that the original insured, who became un-insured, and then became re-insured, could pay enough extra so that the original uninsured could be insured, thus making it free of charge to them. This is one way to redistribute wealth, a common practice in socialist or communist countries. In the US, the politically correct name for this is Progressivism.
So the old system where the uninsured freeloaded off our ratepayer dollars with zero penalty and that openly discouraged any sense of personal responsibility was better right?
You won’t answer that.
Yes, I will answer. Under the former system, the uninsured did not freeload off ratepayer dollars. They freeloaded off TAXpayer dollars dispense through U.S. government programs like Medicaid and CHIP. All taxpayers contributed to their health care whereas under Obamacare, ratepayers are now paying for the freeloaders in addition to paying their normal income taxes. Do you think that is fair?
“Under the former system, the uninsured did not freeload off ratepayer dollars. ”
This is flat out wrong.
Uninsured freeloaded off ratepayers. Private payers would be held in hospitals or overcharged for decades to cover the rising costs of the uninsured. There is a reason private insurance ratepayers would get whacked with the same rate increases that public ratepayers paid: because both were getting stolen from by the uninsured. CHIP doesn’t cover adults. You don’t understand the program. And Medicare would also cover them, but hospitals routinely overbilled private payers all the time.
You do not understand how hospital billing works and how it over bills ratepayers of all sorts to cover the uninsured.
All you did was show you don’t understand the system, neither the ACA nor the old system.
The old system where the uninsured freeloaded off our ratepayer dollars, both public and private with zero penalty and that openly discouraged any sense of personal responsibility is by your admission better than a system that discourages freeloading and pushes those towards getting their own insurance.
You hate Obama so much you advocate for theft.
Hey, Choyd, the Star-Advertiser did not include a Reply option under your comment below, so I will reply here. Thank you for telling me and all other readers that all hospitals were guilty of defrauding health insurance companies before Obamacare in order for hospitals to cover the cost of treating un-insureds. If you know that to be true and have evidence to prove it, I hope you reported it to the proper authorities. I did not say CHIP covered adults. I have been around long enough to know that CHIP is the acronym for the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program and since it says “Children’s,” it is quite obvious it does not cover adults. MediCAID, the program mentioned in my comment, is the government program that covered uninsured adults. I did not mention Medicare, which covers adults, because they are primarily people who paid into the system while working or are paying monthly premiums to receive health care under Medicare. They are not freeloaders. So what do I not understand?
Ronin006, why do you think that insurance companies were so gung ho about the ACA?
Because it forces the uninsured out of the shadows and into the revenue stream.
And yes, the hospitals were defrauding ALL ratepayers for decades. The problem is because healthcare costs are so obscure, figuring out exactly how much is basically impossible other than in the billions. Why does the same procedure with zero complications cost $10,000 in one place and $250,000 in another? Because one patient has insurance and can be billed more to cover the costs of the uninsured the hospital by law has to take thanks to Reagan. Why do state workers in Hawaii get kept in the hospital for an extra day for the same issue where the uninsured get kicked out as soon as possible?
People like you have NO IDEA how badly you’ve been robbed for decades to cover the uninsured. But because you HATE Obama so much, you are advocating for theft from your own pocket book.
If you even remotely consider yourself a Conservative, you should be cheering the ACA and its push to make people more responsible. Not advocating for a return to massive theft.
The Republicans can’t fight their way out of a Paper Bag! Challenging the Looney Democrat Party again? Really? I don’t think so! The Republicans will fail, either without the required votes or to the President’s Mighty Pen!
The GOP will once again fall to the Minority Democrats….. This is all show folks.
It’s a dead cert that Republicans can’t fight their way out of a Paper Bag, but you may be missing the bigger picture. A long overdue RINOCIDE campaign is underway and TRUMP is the TRUMPETING of a long moribund GOP elephant charging back to life, having barely escaped the La Brea Tar Pits of political extinction. This fight is going to be long, messy and bloody as the entrenched east coast establishment DESPISES the conservative base and will do all in their power to destroy both Cruz and Trump even though these two gentlemen have nothing in common except a willingness to engage in a scrap to overturn the status quo.
Lucky us. We have ringside seat at what may very well be a blood bath.
Let’s get it on. Trump is on a roll.